Wednesday, August 8, 2007

The next time you run a Google search take a look at the bottom of the screen - unless things change - you'll see the following option "Dissatisfied? Help us improve." Click this link and you'll be taken to a user entry page. Below is a screen shot of a portion this page after I had done a Google search on "springer spaniels":

The "Were you looking for a specific URL that wasn't listed in the search results? If so, please enter the URL here:" entry box is most interesting. Users are required to enter content in both boxes and, after entering, are taken to another page with the message:

"We will use your responses to help us in our never-ending quest to improve the quality of Google search. While we do not send responses to information submitted using this form, you can find more information, including our user support email addresses at: http://www.google.com/help/index.html"

And..... last week Mike Grehan was doing some research on Google UK and noticed a new feature at the bottom of the page on many of the searches he did that asks the user if they would like to suggest a "better page" url for the particular item being searched on. You can read Mike's blog entry on this topic here.Are these the beginnings of a social tagging effort by Google? Perhaps this is a response to Jimmy "Jimbo" Wales plans for Search Wikia - a project that serves as a platform for the development of a new free/open source search engine with user-editable search results. My guess is yes.

In 2001, I was selected as one of the top 15 STEM faculty in the United States by Microsoft and the American Association of Community Colleges and in 2004 was selected as the Massachusetts Network and Communications Council Workforce Leader of the year.